03-09-2013
Obama's Wall
Street and the Looting of America
THERE ARE NOW
40 MILLION ILLEGALS IN OUR COUNTRY, WHICH ARE IN OUR JOBS, JAILS or WELFARE.
“While 43.6
million Americans live in poverty, the richest men of finance sure are getting
pissy.”
OBAMA, THE BANKSTER OWNED LA RAZA DEM
“The
response of the administration was to rush to the defense of the banks. Even
before coming to power, Obama expressed his unconditional support for the
bailouts, which he subsequently expanded. He assembled an administration
dominated by the interests of finance capital, symbolized by economic adviser
Lawrence Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.”
*
OBAMANOMICS:
Soaring Profits for Wall Street, Soaring Crimes of Bankster Donors, Soaring
Foreclosures and Soaring Unemployment for Americans (Legals)…. STILL CALLING IT
“CHANGE”???
Importing
Poverty: Immigration and Poverty in the United States: A Book of Charts
By Robert Rector
The Obama administration has also cut worksite enforcement efforts by70%, allowing illegal immigrants to continue working in jobs that rightfully belong to citizens and legal workers.
The Obama administration has also cut worksite enforcement efforts by70%, allowing illegal immigrants to continue working in jobs that rightfully belong to citizens and legal workers.
*
THE ENTIRE REASON THE BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN IS TO CUT WAGES!
By and large, the new jobs created pay much less than those lost during the crash. According to Friday’s figures, average hourly earnings for production workers have risen by only 2 percent over the past year, a figure wiped out by rising prices.
"We could cut unemployment in half simply by reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal workers," said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, co-chairman of the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus. "President Obama is on the wrong side of the American people on immigration. The president should support policies that help citizens and legal immigrants find the jobs they need and deserve rather than fail to enforce immigration laws."
Obama and Justice Sotomayor Vow to Illegals to SABOTAGE E-verify!
VIVA
LA RAZA SUPREMACY?
THE
OTHER SIDE OF OBAMAnomics: HIS WALL STREET CRONIES ARE DOING WELL!
The corporate cash hoard has likewise reached a new record, hitting an estimated $1.79 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year, up from $1.77 trillion in the previous quarter. Instead of investing the money, however, companies are using it to buy back their own stock and pay out record dividends.
The corporate cash hoard has likewise reached a new record, hitting an estimated $1.79 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year, up from $1.77 trillion in the previous quarter. Instead of investing the money, however, companies are using it to buy back their own stock and pay out record dividends.
February
employment report masks depth of US jobs crisis
By Andre
Damon
9 March 2013
9 March 2013
The number of jobs in the
US grew by 236,000 in February, and the official unemployment rate fell to its
lowest level since 2008, according to the Labor Department’s latest jobs report
released Friday.
The media jumped on the
jobs total—significantly higher than the 165,000 that had been predicted—to
proclaim an economic turnaround, while the Obama White House said the report
indicated that “the recovery that began in mid-2009 is gaining traction.”
In reality, the jobs
gained are a drop in the bucket compared to those lost during the recession. In
the downturn that started in 2008, the US economy lost 8.9 million jobs, and if
previous economic trends had continued, another 5.9 million jobs would have
been added. Since the end of 2009, the economy has added only 5.7 million jobs.
At February’s rate of
job growth, the US economy would not get back to the pre-recession level of
unemployment until 2017.
By and large, the new jobs created pay much less than those lost during the crash. According to Friday’s figures, average hourly earnings for production workers have risen by only 2 percent over the past year, a figure wiped out by rising prices.
By and large, the new jobs created pay much less than those lost during the crash. According to Friday’s figures, average hourly earnings for production workers have risen by only 2 percent over the past year, a figure wiped out by rising prices.
In addition to paying
lower wages, an increasing number of new jobs are part time. Compared to late
2007, 5.8 million fewer people in the US are now working full time, but 2.8
million more are working part time. The share of people working part-time has
grown from 16.9 percent at the start of the recession to 19.2 percent today.
Even as payrolls increased
in February, a significant number of people simply stopped looking for work and
dropped out of the labor force. With 130,000 people dropping out of the
workforce, the labor force participation rate fell to 63.5 percent, the lowest
level in over three decades.
The percentage of the
population that is employed fell from 63.3 percent in February 2007 to 58.5
percent in February 2010. This figure has stayed essentially unchanged at that
level since then, with the latest figure coming in at 58.5 percent.
Long-term unemployment has
likewise increased significantly in the most recent report. The percentage of
unemployed people who have been out of work for more than half a year hit 40.2
percent in February, up from 38.1 in January. At the end of December 2007, this
figure stood at 17.4 percent.
The latest jobs report
came after a surprise drop in the United States’ gross domestic product in the
fourth quarter of 2012, which was revised up to a growth of only 0.1 percent.
The combined economies of the advanced industrial countries in that quarter
shrank by 0.2 percent.
The US public sector once
again shed jobs in February, losing 10,000 positions. Since June 2009, 742,000
state, local, and federal jobs have been eliminated, half of those in public
education.
The slashing of government
jobs is only likely to intensify with last week’s passage of $1.2 trillion in
‘sequester’ job cuts. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the
imposition of the sequester will result in 750,000 job losses, and
significantly increase the unemployment rate.
Friday’s US jobs report
appeared the same day the DOW Jones Industrial average hit the highest level in
its history. The corporate cash hoard has likewise reached a new record,
hitting an estimated $1.79 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year, up from
$1.77 trillion in the previous quarter. Instead of investing the money,
however, companies are using it to buy back their own stock and pay out record
dividends.
Corporations have sharply
increased dividend payments to investors. TheNew
York Times reported Friday that S&P 500 companies are
expected to pay over $300 billion in dividends this year, a sharp increase over
last year’s payout of $282 billion. American corporations bought back $117.8
billion in their own stock last month, the highest total on records going back
to 1985.
“Corporations are flush
with cash and that cash sitting in the corporate coffers is earning next to
nothing,” Rob Leiphart, an analyst at Birinyi, told the Times. “Companies have to
do something with it.”
The rise in corporate
stock buy-backs harkens back to the period prior to the 2008 crash. As
the Times noted,
“Similar buyback activity occurred the last time stocks hit record highs.
During the housing boom that ended in 2007, S&P 500 companies ramped up
their share buybacks to what were the highest levels in history.”
After four years of
“recovery,” the US economy is nowhere near its pre-recession level of
unemployment. Instead of investing in production, major corporations, flush
with cash and with their stock at record levels, are paying out dividends and
inflating their own stock values.
These actions work to
further enrich the financial elite, which has seen its wealth increase
dramatically with the rise of the stock market. This is made possible in large
measure by the US Federal Reserve’s vastly expansionary monetary policy, which
is throwing $85 billion a year into financial markets and ultimately into the
coffers of the super-rich.
The unprecedented
combination of mass unemployment, falling wages and an influx of free money
from the Federal Reserve has led to a boom in corporate profits, which have set
records for three years in a row. In the third quarter of 2012, corporate
profits as a percentage of the total economy were 14.2 percent, the highest
level on record going back to 1950, while the share of national income that
went to workers, 61.7 percent, was at its lowest level in nearly five decades.
THE LOOTING OF AMERICA
POVERTY RISES AS WALL ST. BILLIONAIRES WHINE!
These guys profited from puffing up the housing bubble, then got bailed out when the going got tough. (Please see The Looting of America for all the gory details.) Without taxpayer largess, these hedge fund honchos would be flat broke. Instead, they're back to hauling in obscene profits.
These billionaires don't even have to worry about serious financial reforms. The paltry legislation that squeaked through Congress did nothing to end too big and too interconnected to fail. In fact, the biggest firms got even bigger as they gobbled up troubled banks, with the generous support of the federal government. No bank or hedge fund was broken up. Nobody was forced to pay a financial transaction tax. None of the big boys had a cap placed on their astronomical wealth. No one's paying reparations for wrecking the US economy. The big bankers are still free to create and trade the very derivatives that catapulted us into this global crisis. You'd think the billionaires would be praying on the altar of government and erecting statues on Capital Hill in honor of St. Bailout.
While 43.6 million Americans live in poverty, the richest men of finance sure are getting pissy. First Steve Schwartzman, head of the Blackrock private equity company, compares the Obama administration's effort to close billionaires' tax loopholes to "the Nazi invasion of Poland." Then hedge fund mogul David Loeb announces that he's abandoning the Democrats because they're violating "this country's core founding principles" -- including "non-punitive taxation, Constitutionally-guaranteed protections against persecution of the minority, and an inexorable right of self-determination." Instead of showing their outrage about the spread of poverty in the richest nation on Earth, the super-rich want us to pity them?
Why are Wall Street's billionaires so whiny? Is it really possible to make $900,000 an hour (not a typo -- that's what the top ten hedge fund managers take in), and still feel aggrieved about the way government is treating you? After you've been bailed out by the federal government to the tune of $10 trillion (also not a typo) in loans, asset swaps, liquidity and other guarantees, can you really still feel like an oppressed minority?
You'd think the Wall Street moguls would be thankful. Not just thankful -- down on their knees kissing the ground taxpayers walk on and hollering hallelujah at the top of their lungs! These guys profited from puffing up the housing bubble, then got bailed out when the going got tough. (Please see The Looting of America for all the gory details.) Without taxpayer largess, these hedge fund honchos would be flat broke. Instead, they're back to hauling in obscene profits.
These billionaires don't even have to worry about serious financial reforms. The paltry legislation that squeaked through Congress did nothing to end too big and too interconnected to fail. In fact, the biggest firms got even bigger as they gobbled up troubled banks, with the generous support of the federal government. No bank or hedge fund was broken up. Nobody was forced to pay a financial transaction tax. None of the big boys had a cap placed on their astronomical wealth. No one's paying reparations for wrecking the US economy. The big bankers are still free to create and trade the very derivatives that catapulted us into this global crisis. You'd think the billionaires would be praying on the altar of government and erecting statues on Capital Hill in honor of St. Bailout.
Instead, standing before us are these troubled souls, haunted by visions of persecution. Why?
The world changed. Before the bubble burst, these people walked on water. Their billions proved that they were the best and the brightest -- not just captains of the financial universe, but global elites who had earned a place in history. They donated serious money to worthy causes -- and political campaigns. No one wanted to mess with them.
But then came the crash. And the things changed for the big guys -- not so much financially as spiritually. Plebeians, including me, are asking pointed questions and sometimes even being heard, both on the Internet and in the mainstream media. For the first time in a generation, the public wants to know more about these emperors and their new clothes. For instance:
• What do these guys actually do that earns them such wealth?
• Is what they do productive and useful for society? Is there any connection between what they earn and what they produce for society?
• Did they help cause the crash?
• Did these billionaires benefit from the bailouts? If so, how much?
• Are they exacerbating the current unemployment and poverty crisis with their shenanigans?
• Why shouldn't we eliminate their tax loopholes (like carried interest)?
• Should their sky-high incomes be taxed at the same levels as during the Eisenhower years?
• Can we create the millions of jobs we need if the billionaires continue to skim off so much of our nation's wealth??
• Should we curb their wealth and political influence?
• Is what they do productive and useful for society? Is there any connection between what they earn and what they produce for society?
• Did they help cause the crash?
• Did these billionaires benefit from the bailouts? If so, how much?
• Are they exacerbating the current unemployment and poverty crisis with their shenanigans?
• Why shouldn't we eliminate their tax loopholes (like carried interest)?
• Should their sky-high incomes be taxed at the same levels as during the Eisenhower years?
• Can we create the millions of jobs we need if the billionaires continue to skim off so much of our nation's wealth??
• Should we curb their wealth and political influence?
How dare we ask such
questions! How dare we consider targeting them for special taxes? How dare we
even think about redistributing THEIR incomes... even if at the moment much of
their money comes directly from our bailouts and tax breaks?
It's true
that the billionaires live in a hermetically sealed world. But that doesn't
mean they don't notice the riffraff nipping at their heels. And they don't like
it much. So they've gotten busy doing what billionaires do best: using their
money to shield themselves. They're digging into their bottomless war chests,
tapping their vast connections and using their considerable influence to shift
the debate away from them and towards the rest of us.
We borrowed too much, not them. We get too much health care, not them. We retire too soon, not them. We need to tighten our belts while they pull in another $900,000 an hour. And if we want to cure poverty, we need to get the government to leave Wall Street alone. Sadly, their counter-offensive is starting to take hold.
How can this happen? Many Americans want to relate to billionaires. They believe that all of us are entitled to make as much as we can, pretty much by any means necessary. After all, maybe someday you or I will strike it rich. And when we do, we sure don't want government regulators or the taxman coming around!
Billionaires are symbols of American individual prowess and virility. And if we try to hold them back or slow them down, we're on the road to tyranny. Okay, the game is rigged in their favor. Okay, they got bailed out while the rest of us didn't -- especially the 29 million people who are jobless or forced into part-time work. But what matters most is that in America, nothing can interfere with individual money-making. That only a few of us actually make it into the big-time isn't a bad thing: It's what makes being rich so special. So beware: If we enact even the mildest of measures to rein in Wall Street billionaires, we're on the path to becoming North Korea.
Unfortunately, if we don't adjust our attitudes, we can expect continued high levels of unemployment and more people pushed below the poverty line. It's not clear that our economy will ever recover as long as the Wall Street billionaires keep siphoning off so much of our wealth. How can we create jobs for the many while the few are walking off with $900,000 an hour with almost no new jobs to show for it? In the old days, even robber barons built industries that employed people -- steel, oil, railroads. Now the robber barons build palaces out of fantasy finance. We can keep coddling our financial billionaires and let our economy spiral down, or we can make them pay their fair share so we can create real jobs. These guys crashed the economy, they killed billions of jobs, and now they're cashing in on our bailout. They owe us. They owe the unemployed. They owe the poor.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was no radical, but he accepted the reality: If America was going to prosper -- and pay for its costly Cold War -- the super-rich would have to pony up. It was common knowledge that when the rich grew too wealthy, they used their excess incomes to speculate. In the 1950s, memories of the Great Depression loomed large, and people knew that a skewed distribution of income only fueled speculative booms and disastrous busts. On Ike's watch, the effective marginal tax rate for those earning over $3 million (in today's dollars) was over 70 percent. The super-rich paid. As a nation we respected that other important American value: advancing the common good.
For the last thirty years we've been told that making as much as you can is just another way of advancing the common good. But the Great Recession erased that equation: The Wall Streeters who made as much as they could undermined the common good. It's time to balance the scales. This isn't just redistribution of income in pursuit of some egalitarian utopia. It's a way to use public policy to reattach billionaires to the common good.
It's time to take Eisenhower's cue and redeploy the excessive wealth Wall Street's high rollers have accumulated. If we leave it in their hands, they'll keep using it to construct speculative financial casinos. Instead, we could use that money to build a stronger, more prosperous nation. We could provide our people with free higher education at all our public colleges and universities -- just like we did for WWII vets under the GI Bill of Rights (a program that returned seven dollars in GDP for every dollar invested). We could fund a green energy Manhattan Project to wean us from fossil fuels. An added bonus: If we siphon some of the money off Wall Street, some of our brightest college graduates might even be attracted not to high finance but to jobs in science, education and healthcare, where we need them.
Of course, this pursuit of the common good won't be easy for the billionaires (and those who indentify with them.). But there's just no alternative for this oppressed minority: They're going to have to learn to live on less than $900,000 an hour.
Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, and What We Can Do About It Chelsea Green Publishing, June 2009.
*
Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is
Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and
Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial
Reviews
Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman
Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack
Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from
Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and
consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney
digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you
wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate
socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s
corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
Congressman
Ron Paul says, “Every libertarian and free-market conservative needs to
read Obamanomics.” And Johan Goldberg, columnist and bestselling
author says, “Obamanomics is conservative muckraking at its best
and an indispensable field guide to the Obama years.”
If
you’ve wondered what’s happening to America, as the federal government swallows
up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts deficit
exploding “stimulus packages,” this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam.
Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger,
somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book
names the names—and it will make your blood boil.
*
Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto
Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from
the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that
crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers.
Investigative
reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and
the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling
corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
Obamanomics. In this explosive book, Carney reveals:
* The Great Health Care Scam—Obama’s backroom deals with
drug companies spell corporate profits and more government control
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics
If you’ve wondered what’s happening to our country, as
the federal government swallows up the financial sector, the auto industry, and
healthcare, and enacts deficit exploding “stimulus packages” that create
make-work government jobs, this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam.
Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger,
somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book
names the names—and it will make your blood boil.
*
Praise for Obamanomics
Praise for Obamanomics
“The
notion that ‘big business’ is on the side of the free market is one of
progressivism’s most valuable myths. It allows them to demonize corporations by
day and get in bed with them by night. Obamanomics is
conservative muckraking at its best. It reveals how President Obama is
exploiting the big business mythology to undermine the free market and stick it
to entrepreneurs, taxpayers, and consumers. It’s an indispensable field guide
to the Obama years.”
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author
“‘Every
time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich.’ With this astute
observation, Tim Carney begins his task of laying bare the Obama
administration’s corporatist governing strategy, hidden behind the president’s
populist veneer. This meticulously researched book is a must-read for anyone
who wants to understand how Washington really works.”
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama
“Every
libertarian and free-market conservative who still believes that large
corporations are trusted allies in the battle for economic liberty needs to
read this book, as does every well-meaning liberal who believes that expansions
of the welfare-regulatory state are done to benefit the common people.”
—Congressman Ron Paul
—Congressman Ron Paul
“It’s
understandable for critics to condemn President Obama for his ‘socialism.’ But
as Tim Carney shows, the real situation is at once more subtle and more
sinister. Obamanomics favors big business while disproportionately punishing
everyone else. So-called progressives are too clueless to notice, as usual,
which is why we have Tim Carney and this book.”
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History
*
· Hardcover: 256 pages
· Publisher: Regnery Press
(November 30, 2009)
· Language: English
· ISBN-10: 1596986123
· ISBN-13: 978-1596986121
OBAMA, THE BANKSTER
OWNED LA RAZA DEM
“The
response of the administration was to rush to the defense of the banks. Even
before coming to power, Obama expressed his unconditional support for the
bailouts, which he subsequently expanded. He assembled an administration
dominated by the interests of finance capital, symbolized by economic adviser
Lawrence Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.”
*
THE REASON OBAMA BROUGHT IN GEITHNER, BUSH’S
ARCHITECT FOR BANKSTERS’ WELFARE, WAS TO SIGNAL HIS BANKSTER DONORS THERE WOULD
BE NO CHANGE!
“Rattner’s
evident involvement in the scheme underscores the criminal character of the
Wall Street financiers who the Obama administration put in charge of destroying
the jobs and living standards of auto workers. Selected by Timothy Geithner and
Lawrence Summers—who were both deeply involved in the deregulation of the
finance industry and the Wall Street bailout”
Here’s what Obama did for GM and against the
workers:
The
crisis in the auto industry—provoked by the 2008 financial breakdown and the
plunge in auto sales to the lowest per-capita rate since World War II—was used
by Wall Street and the US government to destroy jobs and wages and transform
the industry into a lucrative investment for the same speculators who provoked
the catastrophe.
*
wsws.org
wsws.org
A union-free America. Growth down a little, employment
down a lot. Profits and productivity up, wages flat. Health-care costs up for
workers, down for employers. The return of a thriving middle class? Dream
on.
After
the elections: Behind the Democratic debacle
4 November 2010
Only
a day after the midterm elections, the US media quickly coalesced around a
narrative, accepted by everyone in the political establishment, that the
victory of the Republican Party was a popular repudiation of the supposedly
left-wing policies of the Obama administration. In his press conference on
Wednesday, Obama himself adopted this analysis, pledging to work closely with
the Republican Party, find some compromise on tax cuts for the wealthy, and
improve his relations with corporate America.
Underlying
this claim are two premises, both of which are false: 1) that Obama has carried
out an anti-corporate program during his first two years; and 2) that the
population as a whole has used the election to give a rousing affirmation of
capitalism and big business. These premises are not only absurd, they clash
with the basic facts.
In
the flood of political commentary, no one in the mainstream media has suggested
a far more plausible explanation: After coming to power by posing as the
tribune of “hope” and "change you can believe in," Obama, through his
pro-corporate and pro-war policies, has succeeded in alienating and politically
demoralizing large sections of the population that had voted for him.
The
event that secured Obama's election was the spectacular collapse of Wall Street
in September of 2008, which shattered whatever was left of the credibility of
the Bush administration and deeply discredited the capitalist system itself.
Obama came into office with an overwhelming mandate for radical reform.
The
response of the administration was to rush to the defense of the banks. Even
before coming to power, Obama expressed his unconditional support for the
bailouts, which he subsequently expanded. He assembled an administration
dominated by the interests of finance capital, symbolized by economic adviser
Lawrence Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
The
administration opposed any constraints on executive compensation and rejected
out of hand sanctions against or the prosecution of those responsible for the
economic catastrophe. Over the past two years, the wealthiest individuals have
vastly expanded their share of the national income and the largest banks are
expected to hand out record compensation packages.
The
economic crisis has led to a jobs crisis unlike anything seen since the Great
Depression. The administration has rejected any government hiring programs.
Throughout the crisis, Obama has endlessly repeated the claim that employment
levels are a “lagging indicator.”
After
bailing out Wall Street, Obama oversaw the forced bankruptcy of General Motors
and Chrysler, demanding that workers accept deep cuts in jobs, wages and
benefits. As a result, profits for the auto giants have soared while the
assault on auto workers’ wages has become the model for wage-cutting in every
economic sector and in every part of the country.
The
consequences can be seen in the collapse of support for the Democratic Party in
the industrial Midwest, the site of half the seats lost by Democrats in the
House of Representatives. In Michigan, a center of the auto industry, the
Republicans swept state and local offices, amid a turnout of only 45 percent.
In Detroit, which had voted for Obama overwhelmingly in 2008, barely one in five
voters showed up at the polls.
The principal domestic program for which Obama is
associated is the overhaul of the health care system. The bill was entirely
tailored to the interests of insurance companies and giant corporations. For the sake of “bipartisanship,”
Obama abandoned anything that hinted of progressive reform, including the
“public option.” Elderly voters, in particular, quite correctly saw the entire
measure as a step toward cutting Medicare benefits and rationing care,
resulting in a significant electoral swing to the Republican Party, which
recorded an 18 percent advantage among voters over 60.
Joseph
Kishore
2020 Democrats Won’t Criticize Biden’s Time as VP for Fear of Attacking Obama Legacy
3:14
Joe Biden’s rivals in the race for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination are attacking him from all angles, save one: Biden’s time as Barack Obama’s vice president.
“People are very nostalgic for that time,” an activist told Politico. Among liberal voters, the Obama administration is inextricably entwined with pre-Trump nostalgia. Years after his presidency, Obama remains extremely popular with his base. That is good news for Joe “Malarkey” Biden, who is riding that goodwill toward the Oval Office.
“It’s going to be challenging for progressives to attack that legacy,” said chief executive Yvette Simpson, of the “Democracy for America” PAC. “Because Obama not only is and was so popular, but people are very nostalgic for that time, particularly after a few years of Trump.”
Cory Booker has called a crime bill that Biden helped write in 1994 “awful” and “shameful.” Bernie Sanders has gone after Biden for his support of the Iraq War and NAFTA, while Elizabeth Warren has criticized him as “on the side of the credit card companies.” None of them, however, seem willing to contest any matter from his actual White House tenure, despite Politico noting the left has plenty of issues with the Obama administration’s legacy:
For years, left-wing activists have disapproved of the Obama administration’s management of the economic crash, opioid crisis, immigrant deportations, and ill-fated attempts to compromise with Republicans. But many believe it would be political suicide for progressive presidential candidates to question Obama’s record at length, even in the service of defeating Biden.
Sean McElwee, the co-founder of the left-wing think tank Data for Progress, had an arch response: “The biggest weaknesses Biden has, for the most part, are not things he did in the Obama administration,” he said. “Luckily for progressives, Joe Biden is literally 150 years old, which means he has a half-century of a career otherwise to attack.”
Adam Green, co-founder of Progressive Change Campaign Committee — which recently endorsed Warren over Biden — simply does not think Joe is right for the job. “It’s perfectly consistent to say that President Obama righted the ship and aimed it in a better direction,” he claimed, “but now we have an opportunity to move the ship much further and much faster toward progress.”
“The person to do that is clearly not Joe Biden,” Green added, “as he moves backwards on issues ranging from the Hyde Amendment to NAFTA to a ‘middle ground’ on the existential climate crisis.”
Meanwhile, Biden has drawn a sought-after demographic into his fold: black Americans who supported his “buddy Barack.” Yvette Simpson, head of the progressive Democracy for America PAC acknowledged the risk of alienating that demographic. “Biden’s early advantage among African-Americans has more to do with Obama than Biden. And if you attack that, you start to alienate those voters,” she said.
“Biden is winning, or at least is ahead, because nobody has made the argument that Obama’s policies are the reason that Democrats lost in 2016,” said Matt Stoller, a former Senate Budget Committee aide under Bernie Sanders. “They’re not challenging the fundamental narrative that Joe Biden is running on, which is that Obama did a good job and we need to get back to that.”
“I’ve been bugging the campaigns about it,” he said, but “they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we know, but we don’t have a way to do it.'”
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